Western Sydney Wanderers have issued a public apology to Sydney's FC coach Graham Arnold after their supporters unveiled an offensive banner during last week's Sydney derby.
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The Wanderers continue to take responsibility for the action of their supporters with their chairman, Paul Lederer, labelling their fans' actions "abhorrent".
It took one week after the incident but the club's chairman has finally given Sydney FC the apology they asked for after Arnold was depicted performing a sex act in a lewd insult by Wanderers fans.
It resulted in the club being fined $20,000 and 14 of their active supporters receiving 18-month bans.
The Wanderers took an unprecedented step in issuing the bans themselves and vowed to disband the Red and Black Bloc in the event of a repeat incident before issuing the public apology on Saturday.
"On behalf of the Western Sydney Wanderers, we apologise to Graham Arnold and his family and to all others who have been offended by the abhorrent actions of a few who are now no longer part of our Club," Lederer said. "It is with great disappointment that the actions of a minority have prompted fairly stern action to be taken by the Club this week to eradicate anti-social behaviour."
Fairfax Media understands the Wanderers also came under pressure from sponsors furious with the lewd banner. Western Sydney University issued a public statement confirming their intention to remove signage from Wanderers' A-League games as a result of the homophobic insult from the RBB.
